"Women on Boards in Europe – From a Snail’s Pace to a Giant Leap?", the new EWL report

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) has just released a new report on women on Board of Directors in Europe. The report assesses the current situation and progress in nine EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK) and Norway and it provides a comprehensive overview of the measures adopted in the recent years at national level to increase the representation of women in the boardrooms, building on the expertise of EWL member organisations, such as AFAEMME.

Although women represent 60% of university graduates in Europe, they are seriously under-represented in the governing bodies of European companies. In 2012, women accounted for just 12% of board members and less than 3% of company chairs and with the current rate of progress (0,5 percentage points per year) it would take 50 years to reach a decent gender balance of 40% in the boards of European companies. Therefore, some governments started to regulate by law the number of women in corporate boardrooms.

Norway was the first country in the world to adopt a binding quota law in 2005. In the course of 2011 France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands adopted legislative measures to increase the representation of women in corporate boardrooms. In early 2011, European Commission Vice-President V. Reding called upon companies to take action to reach 30% of women’s representation on boards by 2015 and 40% by 2020 (“Women on Board Pledge for Europe”). Also other measures were adopted by European countries in order to improve the gender balance of state-owned companies.

In SPAIN the Law on Equality adopted in 2007 introduced a provision for companies to establish boards of directors with a “balanced presence” of women and men (minimum 40% of either sex) but women’s representation on boards has only reached 10%, up from 4% in 2006. This slow progress may be blamed on the lack of mid-term targets and sanctions.

The EWL recommends to:

• Introduce binding legislation to reach 50% of women on boards by 2020
• Introduce measures to increase the number of female chairs and CEOs
• Limit the number of board positions one person may hold
• Introduce measures to support enterprises and empower women
• Favour companies with gender-equal boards in public procurement
• Address the root causes of women’s underrepresentation

Download the EWL report here.